Two new studies led by University of California, Berkeley, researchers spotlight the human health effects of exposure to smoke from open fires and dirty cookstoves, the primary source of cooking and heating for 43 percent, or some 3 billion members, of the world’s population. Women and young children in poverty are particularly vulnerable.
An estimated 3 billion people in the world still cook with open fires and dirty cookstoves, including this mother in Guatemala. (Photos by Nigel Bruce, University of Liverpool)Nextbigfuture has tried to highlight the important issue of indoor air pollution and the need for smoke free cooking before.700 million black carbon free cookers would save over one million lives per year, reduce birth defects and reduce global warming.
Prior PNAS research - Association of selected persistent organic pollutants in the placenta with the risk of neural tube defects.Fixing black carbon soot pollution could save almost 2 million lives per year and fixing portions of this soot problem would be the equivalent of lowering one ton of CO2 at a cost of $6 per ton.Read on at NextBIGFUTRE
In the first study, the researchers found a dramatic one-third reduction in severe pneumonia diagnoses among children in homes with smoke-reducing chimneys on their cookstoves. The second study uncovered a surprising link between prenatal maternal exposure to woodsmoke and poorer performance in markers for IQ among school-aged children.
Prior PNAS research - Association of selected persistent organic pollutants in the placenta with the risk of neural tube defects.Fixing black carbon soot pollution could save almost 2 million lives per year and fixing portions of this soot problem would be the equivalent of lowering one ton of CO2 at a cost of $6 per ton.Read on at NextBIGFUTRE
